Fang Hetong had finished talking about the local defenses. Now, it was Wei Yuan’s turn to explain the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s defensive arrangements.

The Palace had several thousand years of experience resisting the foreign races. Naturally, they had established a self-contained defense system across the two commanderies. First, the True Lord presided from on high, overseeing heaven and earth. Next, the Truemen each guarded a domain and served as pillars of stability. Powerful Dao Foundation cultivators such as Zhang Sheng would patrol the regions, identifying weaknesses, patching gaps, and providing timely reinforcements. Finally, disciples like Wei Yuan—those who had completed the Body-tempering stage or newly ascended to the Dao Foundation stage—were dispersed across various strongholds as defensive fulcrums.

The Palace had basically laid down a huge net between the two commanderies. Their plan to deal with Northern Liao’s ferocious assault was to be immovable. In fact, this strategy had a bit of sacrifice planned into it. If the enemy managed to seize the outlying strongholds, the forces they deployed would inevitably exceed the Dao Foundation stage, making them easy prey for the Palace to capture and devour in one fell swoop. Wei Yuan knew this well and harbored no complaints. War was inherently a matter of trade-offs; victory inevitably came with sacrifices.

After he was done discussing defenses with Fang Hetong, Wei Yuan wasted no time in engaging the militia in small conversations. By now, the working men had finished their work for the day. They had boiled a large pot of broth using the dried meat he brought and were eating steaming bowls of rice with the broth. They had gone hungry for days, and this pot of broth was cooked on the basis that four men would be sharing a single strip of meat. Despite this, each man only took a small bowlful—no one scrambled for more, nor did anyone ask for extra servings.

It was easy to fall ill for a person who had starved for some time to eat a full meal. The peasants could not have figured this out themselves. Thus, Fang Hetong must have taught them about it. That said, things were easier said than done. The Palace’s military rations might not be all that delicious in the heavens, but it was a different story for those living in the mortal world. But despite the temptation, not a single one of these several hundred men had stepped out of line. In Wei Yuan’s opinion, this was a disciplined army in its own right.

To have transformed a bunch of illiterate peasants into a well-organized, well-disciplined army in just the span of months—Fang Hetong was unquestionably a man of great ability.

In any case, these honest peasants hurriedly rose to their feet when they saw Wei Yuan. They were all wearing grateful expressions, but no one dared to take the initiative to speak to him. Instead, they answered whatever question he threw at them.

Nighttime arrived in the blink of an eye. The men went back to their homes to rest after drinking the meat broth. The military rations specially created by the Palace of Absolute Beginning gave an ordinary person night vision after two days of continuous consumption, but today was only the first day. Thus, they could not be relied upon to watch the night.

Past a certain level in the Body-tempering stage, one’s five senses would naturally improve. It would be ridiculous to say that a cultivator at this level could see something from several hundred zhang away, but it shouldn’t be a problem for them to view a fly about a dozen zhang away clearly. However, they had only been cultivating for two months or so, and it was purely thanks to Fang Hetong’s Establishing Words that they were able to make some progress. Thus, they were only at the level where their strength was a little greater, and their bodies were a little tougher than normal. Their five senses were not yet honed.

It had been a long time since Fang Hetong had gotten any sleep. Thus, Wei Yuan told him to catch some rest. He would keep watch during the first half of the night, and Fang Hetong could take over during the second half. The scholar didn’t try to turn down his goodwill and obediently took his leave.

Wei Yuan stood atop the wall, gazing northward. As the night deepened, only a vast expanse of grassland dotted with a few solitary trees could be seen in the distance. Beyond that, and all one could see was a churning, impenetrable curtain of darkness.

A slight frown crept onto Wei Yuan’s face. He had possessed keen senses from childhood, and they were only enhanced after completing the Body-tempering stage. To him, even the faintest glimmer of daylight was as clear as broad daylight. At his cultivation level, another disciple employing the Dao spell “Thousand Li Vision” would still see less than his naked eye.

Quyang County was predominantly surrounded by prairies. A hundred li might be too much to ask for, but he should be able to see between seventy and eighty li away clearly. Yet, he could only see up to thirty li away even though it was a windless night. Everything beyond fifty li was completely invisible.

A while later, Wei Yuan had a feeling that the night was alive and intentionally concealing something. When it was near midnight, the night served even closer and blotted out everything beyond twenty li.

Wei Yuan looked up. A crescent and a few sparse stars were hanging above his head. Moonlight was weak, but it was enough for him to see much, much further away than twenty li.

He grabbed a rectangle iron box on the wall and gave it a light slap. A javelin automatically bounced out of it. He caught the javelin and stared at the night closely.

It was at this moment Fang Hetong appeared on the wall with a serious expression. “The Liao barbarians are here.”

“Why didn’t you sleep longer?” Wei Yuan asked.

“I got used to keeping the night watch and couldn’t fall asleep. Besides, every time the Liao barbarians are invading, I would feel a sense of unease. So I thought to myself, I might as well take a look.”

Fang Hetong was carrying a large bow with several runes inscribed to its body. They were glimmering slightly with blue light. There was only a single mystic arrow in his quiver. The rest were ordinary iron arrows.

Gazing into the distant night, he said, “The Liao barbarians’ night raids are usually carried out by a single squad consisting of seven or eight cavalrymen. If they are successful in catching the defenders off guard and breaching the walls, then they would signal for the much bigger force in the rear to march forward. That said, a small place like ours has little value to speak of, and they rarely bother coming here. We should be fine once we’ve held off their scouting party.”

Suddenly, Wei Yuan’s heart seized without warning. He could feel something rapidly approaching from the night!

The night churned, and a single cavalryman leaped out of the darkness. Like a flying fish jumping out of the water, he crossed several zhang of distance in a single leap and landed without a sound!

The light was weak, but Wei Yuan still saw the cavalryman clearly. His armor was predominantly leather with iron strips covering the surface. Fur was peeking out from the turned-up collar. His helmet was also made of leather and covered in iron strips, revealing a pair of sharp-tipped ears. He was carrying a short bow with a hand of four fingers. His eyes were somewhat disproportionately large, and his whites—or more accurately, his grays—were almost completely dominated by his pupils. He also sported a flat, squashed nose with a pair of nostrils that flared forward like a bat. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The warhorse beneath the Northern Liao cavalryman was roughly the same size as a human warhorse. It looked almost too small as its rider boasted a tall and large stature. Two tusks protruded from the horse’s mouth and lent it a particularly savage appearance. Lined along its flanks were a series of breathing holes, from which puffs of white vapor occasionally escaped.

This warhorse was unique to the Liao of Vast Sea. It breathed through its nose and exhaled through its sides. Naturally ferocious, it was an omnivore that could run more or less as fast as a human warhorse, but could carry far more weight and last much longer. An excellent human steed could gallop a thousand li in one go before needing rest. A Liao horse, however, could gallop three thousand li before needing a break, and go over ten days without food or water, assuming they had eaten and drunk their fill beforehand.

Because of this, human cavalrymen were utterly outmatched by their Liao counterparts on these northern prairies. Without the support of their forts, a human army would not even be able to escape if they lost a battle. It was because a Liao cavalry could easily pursue them for a thousand li until their horses had collapsed from exhaustion.

The rider leaping out of the night was a classic example of a Northern Liao light cavalryman—clad in light armor, with a quiver slung over one side of his saddle, and a horse saber and javelin on the other.

More and more light cavalrymen leaped out of the night after the first. Twenty of them appeared before Wei Yuan in the blink of an eye. They were galloping toward Flying Sand Village at a leisurely pace. It was only now Wei Yuan finally heard some faint hoofbeats—an ordinary Dao Foundation cultivator would have heard nothing at all and had to rely solely on ground vibrations to sense an approach. Even then, the ground tremors caused by a Northern Liao cavalry troop were far weaker than their human counterparts. It was more akin to beasts stalking a prey at night—barely perceptible.

Fang Hetong had cast an invisibility spell and hid them a while ago. Then, he set up a few strawmen behind the battlements. From outside, it would certainly appear as if someone was crouching between the battlements and keeping watch. Wei Yuan was puzzled, however. According to the information he was provided, the Liao of Vast Sea boasted outstanding eyesight. Their night vision was almost as good as their day, and their eyesight was four times that of an ordinary person, or equal to a full Body-tempering stage cultivator. Could Fang Hetong’s shoddily-made strawmen really fool them?

It was at this moment he saw Fang Hetong slapping a few pieces of paper onto the strawman’s faces. Human faces were drawn on the faces, and they looked almost lifelike in the dark. He had to admit that Fang Hetong’s skill in calligraphy of the Six Arts[1] was pretty good. The paper was yellowish brown in color, and only the head was poking out of the battlement. Combined with the cover of the night, the scholar was definitely making it difficult for the invaders to tell who was real and who wasn’t.

The Northern Liao scout cavalry were just a hundred zhang away in the blink of an eye. The foremost riders nocked their arrows, and Wei Yuan heard a couple of bow twangs. That was the only warning he got before several arrows pierced through the strawmen’s heads without a sound!

1. Archery, Chariot, Music, Li (Confucianism), Calligraphy and Mathematics (Chinese). ☜